RIFT
by RunningBacon
Summary: It has been 20 years since team RWBY has defeated The White Fang, but the world couldn't be more divided. Tension between the kingdoms is ever growing, and few can see the coming storm. Only the leaders of the huntsman academies remain united and seak to mold huntsman to keep the world at peace. This story will follow team RIFT through a world that is being torn apart.
1. RIFT ch 1: R

RIFT Ch. 1: R

It is 20 years after team RWBY brought an end to the terrorist group The White Fang and its corrupt leaders, but the world suffered because of it. The chaos caused by the White Fang broke alliances between the kingdoms and caused them to distrust one another. For 20 years, tension has been building, politicians have been planning, armies were being built. For most it will be too late, because the storm will already be upon them when they finally realize its existence.

But for the few, the few who have seen it coming, they seek to weather the storm. The leaders of the huntsman academies and their allies remain united in hopes to keep the world together.

So they wait, waiting to seal the divide that is ever widening between the kingdoms. Searching for a way to stop the inevitable. And when the inevitable comes, they will try to cross the Rift that is tearing the world apart.

Smoke.

Suffocating, spreading, consuming, black smoke.

That is what Ryan awoke too. His face was now smeared with soot and snow. His body ached with stiffness and a fresh gash below his eyes seeped blood. A faint ringing still persisted in his ears that was now fading.

How he wished the ringing would stay.

Screams cried out from all around. Few lasted. Most would cry out and then be cut off by a fury of claws and black fur. But the worst was when one of the beasts would hold a man down and, while he was still alive, dig into him with its claws and teeth. Extracting horrific and gurgling screams.

Grimm.

They had come without notice and hit hard. They hit the mining facility first and then moved to the town.

Ryan lifted himself off the ground gingerly. A gas container had burst and sent him flying and through a shop window where he now lay behind the counter. If not for his semblance, he would have been dead. The ice on his back cracked and fell off as he rose to one knee. As he brushed more of the ice off his shoulder, he felt moisture on his right hand, the fluid had soaked up his right sleave and onto the back of his shirt. The fire reflected off of the crimson liquid. Blood had soaked over him. Panic began set in. He checked all over his body for the source of the blood. He turned and tried to find an injury on his back or shoulder... and found the source of the blood. The upper half of what used to be the shopkeeper lay torn and broken against the wall. A smear of blood ran down the wall as well as his body had hit and then sunk to the floor.

His name had been Harry. He was 67 and planned on retiring. He had owned a bookstore, the only one in the small mining town. He would basically give out books to the children of the town, and he would teach them about literature and math because there was no school. He loved the children. Loved them to his dieing breath. Now his body was mangled and destroyed amongst his burning books.

Ryan was 9...

The contents of his stomach couldn't be held down. He wretched for nearly ten minutes as chaos rained outside. His tears ran freely and cold down his cheek.

'_Mom... Dad,_' He needed to find them. They would know what to do. Ryan began to stand, but was stopped by the sound crunching glass and deep snarling.

Every muscle in the boy's body froze. His breath was held steady. '_Remember what Dad taught you. Don't panic_,' he thought to himself. He raised himself slowly and looked over the counter. An Ursa had wandered through the broken doors of the shop and now walked amongst the burning books on the left side of the store. It sniffed around a pile of what could have been another body, but Ryan couldn't see for sure.

'_Now remember what Mom taught you,_' Ryan stood up fully and made eye contact with the Ursa. An icicle formed in his hand as is arm swung back, _'Aim for the eyes.'_ The small ice spike launched from his hand and forward at the Ursa. The projectile sunk deep into the Ursa's red eye. A deep and thunderous roar echoed from the beast as the ice spike made contact. Ryan took the time he had made, and he ran.

His bear feet hit a couple of the burning pages and broken glass froms the windows as he ran out, but he did not slow. His bloody feet left footprints in the snow outside as he bolted out the open door. All around him buildings were burning and Grimm were slaughtering people in the streets and tearing people from the buildings they had tried to take shelter in. And through all of this...

...Ryan ran.

Down chaotic streets of what had once been a quiet town on the edge of civilization, but now had changed into a literal Hell. Gunshots rang out as soldiers tried to fight the overwhelming tide of Grimm. There wasn't enough of them. The town had been hired by the Schnee Dust Company to serve as a base camp for a mining facility to mine pure natural Ice Dust. They only hired enough soldiers and hired guns to watch the perimeter of the mine and not the town. The bear minimum of what was "needed". Shots would fire but then be cut off with a scream and the sound of crunching bones and slashing claws.

One of the soldiers spied the young boy bolting down the street, and so did something else. A polar beowolf purched on one of the buildings that was still intact, eyed the easy target from above. The beowolf turned its head and looked at the soldier. It almost grinned at him with a hungry look in its eyes, and then leaped after the child.

"RUN KID! RUN!" The soldier screamed as he bolted to get to the child before the beast could. He shot three times at the monster before reverting his rifle into its sword form. Both hunters ran at full speed to the boy, closing in on both sides. The soldier reached the boy first and stood in the beasts path. Ryan looked back in time to see the soldier plunge his blade through the creatures neck, then to be hit from the side as another Grimm burst from an adjacent building. Another short cry was cut off as the beast sunk its teeth into the man's neck.

For what seemed to be an eternity Ryan continued to run past burning structures, screaming men, woman, and children, with home being the only goal in mind. He turned one last corner to see the street his home was on just in time...

Just in time to see his father's body fall to the ground beside his mothers with a massive Ursa standing over them.

A horrified scream echoed from Ryan's lips. All he had was now gone. His house was demolished. His sisters' bodies lay in the crumpled structure and his parents lay beaten and dead in the snow with a black reaper standing over them.

The weapons of his fallen parents were crushed as the bear's foot stepped back to turn and look for the source of the scream. Its eyes shone crimson amd its lips curled up into what could only have been a twisted grin. It turned, blood still dripping from its claws, and charged the youth.

Ryan felt ice form around his hands, making heavy balls around his hands that drug him to his knees. Snow creeped up around his legs and anchored him to where he knelt. He struggled and squirmed, trying everything to break free, but to no avail.

The Ursa reached him and slowed to a halt. It leaned down to look into the boys eyes as he squirmed and cried. The grin spread further across his face as he felt the boys fear and sense of loss. The aching in the boys heart. The monster seemed to breath it all in. The beast sucked in air and prepared to release a massive roar, and out of the beasts mouth came... a repeated high pitched beeping.

Ryan lurched awake from his sleep, sweat pouring from his face. He reached out his arm to turn off the repeated high pitched beeping of his alarm clock, and noticed the ice blades that protruded from his arms. He dismissed them and shut off the clock. The time read 6:30 a.m. He swung his legs off of his bed and he sat on the bed's edge. Both of his hands were brought up to meet with his face as he tried to force the memory of the dream from his head.

The dream was wrong of course. Everything up to the end was correct until the Ursa charged. He had tried to defend himself, but the in the dream the ice he relied on would betray him and weigh him down. That was when his older brother, Rolo, had saved him that fateful day and together they found survivors and made their way to Atlas. They had an uncle there who took them in after the news of the incident reached them. That was seven years ago. But the nightmares persisted, on any given night he would find himself reliving every horrid detail of it. Every damn detail.

Ryan slipped a pair of lightweight athletic shorts on along with a pair of running shoes. He picked up a shirt but then decided he didn't need it. He stepped lightly in the quiet apartment. His brother had bought it when he was old enough to move out of their uncles. Then when he found a job as huntsman and a guide for higher for small villages and explorers who dared explore Atlas, he left the apartment in Ryan's care. Rolo had been asked by Lighthouse, the huntsman school in Atlas, to come to the school, but he turned it down. He believed he could learn more out in the real world by helping those in need now instead of waiting in a school.

Ryan let out a short whistle as he walked to the door. A large grey irish wolfhound came pattering out of one of the apartment's rooms and to the door where Ryan stood. Rolo had gotten the dog when he had bougjt the apartment. He named it Greys for the lack of a better name. He had left Greys with Ryan because he thought Ryan needed him more and he didn't want Ryan to be alone. "So are we gonna run or what?" His look seemed to say.

Ryan petted the dog on the head as he opened the door, "Of course buddy. Of course."

The two took off down the streets. After ten minutes or so they reached one of the cities gates. Ryan nodded to the guard and the guard nodded back, and the two slipped out of the gate, and out to run.

"His name is Ryan Henderson. Trained by his mother and father for nine years before their deaths. He has been living in Atlas ever since taking lessons from his uncle. It also says that he has had a lot of "hands on experience" with grimm."

Two men sat in the back of a black van that moved silently through the morning air in the streets of Atlas. One was a taller and aged gentleman with silvet hair and deep brown eyes that were covered by a small pair of glasses. The other was a younger man probably in his late thirties, his hair was black with a pink strip in it and his eyes were a light pink. He continued to read down a datapad full of information.

"How did his parents die?" the older man asked as he sipped a cup of coffee.

"Grimm attack," the other answered. "They lived in a small town near the high ice of the polar ice caps. Massive quantities of pure ice dust were found and the Schnee Dust company paid and gave the town supplies in exchange for permission to mine and to pay for workers. The town agreed. More people lead to more noise. That caught the attention of more grimm. Due to lack of soldiers, the town and mining facilities were destroyed with very few survivors. And interestingly enough, the Schnee Dust company was still able to ship almost all of the dust out before the attack and was able to avoid payment to the town. Though they did give "compensation" to the survivors, they still were able to make a massive profit."

The older man sipped his coffee once again before speaking, "I think it is time we meet this young man and extend our invitation. He is exactly what we are looking for. The others will take care of the other three."

The car pulled to a stop at one of the city gates. The driver waved a document at one of the guards and the guard let them through to the outside. The gate was held slightly open so they could get back in, and there they waited.

Ryan was rounding the three hour mark of his run as he began to approach the city gates again. It would have been shorter if that pack of beowolves hadn't decided to slow him down. A black van with two men standing in front of it greeted him at the gate. Ryan slowed to a stop in front of the two men.

"Can I help you two?"

The older man stepped forward, "Are you Mr. Ryan Henderson?"

"Yeah, how can I help you?"

The older man sipped once more from his coffee mug and then placed it on the hood of the car. "My name is Professor Ozpin, head of Beacon Huntsman Academy in Vale."

"Sounds fancy. Listen I can't stay long, so if you feel like talking then let's walk and do it because I gotta get groceries."

Ren moved to oppose the remark but Ozpin motioned for Ren to get in the car and Ozpin moved to walk alongside Ryan. "That sounds like a fine idea."

Ryan and Ozpin walked through the gates and into the streets of Atlas. The two made small talk as they worked their way to a market close by where Ryan began to pick out assorted food.

"I am sorry."

Ryan sighed, "I can assume what you are apologizing for, but you don't have to. It wasn't your fault."

"Of course not. It was just a terrible thing to have happen."

"Listen Ozpin, I know you aren't here to make small talk and sympathize with me about people who are long dead," Ryan said as he lifted and viewed a bunch of bananas. "So why are you really here."

"Well officially I am here to recruit you to come to Beacon. Your brother turned us and Lighthouse down and now we hope to have you come to our school," Ozpin lifted a small bag of coffee beans and paid for it at an adjacent stand. "But unofficially, the world is need of huntsman and huntresses. The kingdoms need to stay united and we need people like you and your brother to help people as long as this division exists. And we hope that your the kind of hunter we are looking for." Ozpin handed a card to Ryan.

Ryan looked down at the card. It had the word "Beacon" printed in bold along with a phone number and registration information. "And what if I am not the kind of hunter you are looking for?"

"Then you get a free education and a secure future." The black van pulled up once again and Ren stepped out and took the small bag of bagels and coffee beans from Ozpin and put it in the car. "And if I am being honest, Beacon would be an improvement to where you are now," Ozpin said as he climbed into the car. "So you will think about it?"

Ryan looked at Ozpin and then down at the card then back at Ozpin, "Yeah. I will think about. You drive safe now, Ok."

"Yeah. I will." With that, the van pulled away and drove out of sight. Leaving Ryan and

"So Oz, do you think he's in?"

Ozpin leaned back in his chair and released a relaxed sigh. "If he is anything like his brother, then he we have got him for sure."


	2. RIFT ch 2: I

RIFT ch. 2: I

"Hmmm. How far do you think is?"

"Three words. To. Damn. Far."

"I don't know. I think I can make it."

"No. No you can not."

"Oooh I'm thinking about it."

"NO. No you are not."

"I'm gonna do it."

"NO. What part of NO did you not understand?!"

"Well there was that part in the beginning, you know, the consonant. Then there was that vowel near the end."

"No. Ignus why are you backing up?! I SAID N-"

The sound of Ignus's best friend was quickly replaced by the sound of wind rushing past his ear. A Massive expanse of desert and badlands was immediately revealed to him as he flew through the air. He expected as much.

Now to truely understand the situation, we are going to have to go back a ways.

Lantern Military Academy. Mistral's finest military prep school. After the defeat of The White Fang and the damage they caused was seen, Mistral's leaders realized how outgunned they actually were. As tension between the kingdoms grew, Mistral began toying with the idea of turning huntsman amd huntresses into soldiers. What finally forced their hand was when Atlas began moving missiles to islands in the middle sea for "defense against aggressive sea grimm". Mistral began by building forts across the vast expanse of land that Mistral had under its control, driving out Grimm from local areas and creating military strongholds along its ocean borders closer to both Vale and Atlas.

The Torch huntsman academy was closed and decommissioned, though rumors have it that military personnel are still seen going in and out of the area. The Lantern prep school was repurposed into a training school for promising huntsman for the military. These student are trained extensively from the age of ten to sixteen with patriotism and nationalism punched into there heads. Nothing but loyalty to Mistral, living and dieing for Mistral, and how to kill.

They are then sent for further training out in the field in one of the many outposts, alongside seasoned huntsman. The fatality rate is a little high... but hey, "the strong survive". This ideal can be perfectly observed in a natural setting by going back to the story at hand. Now where were we... oh right, Ignus is falling.

The day had started with its normal and "exciting and vigorous training schedule." Ignus was on border patrol with his partner and good friend Garlin. They had passed it time and time again. Day in and day out. The same stretch of baren wastes and rocky coast, and the same crevice that stretched for miles across the landscape. It was long enough to serve as a barrier, wide enough to prevent grimm from crossing, and deep enough that if a body was in need of being hidden forever, you would dump it here. Only now after 327 days of walking past it, did Ignus have the crazy idea of jumping it.

To him, it was plausible. He had the gear and natural ability to do it. His massive set of gauntlets and greaves were usually used to break grimm in half, but could also work as a propellant to make massive jumps. Ignus believed he could make it.

Garlin did not.

The thought of failure never realky crossed Ignus's mind until about mid jump. Every second before had been filled with pure adrenaline and excitement of flying through the air. Those emotions were then instantly covered by a wall. The canyon wall to be exact.

"Oooooooh shi-."

"Oooooooh shi-."

The two friends' obscenities were cut off by Ignus's body crashing against the cliff face. The screeching of metal on rock as Ignus's gauntlets and greaves scraped and dug into the rock wall. Ignus now hung precariously on the canyon wall with his feet and hands dug into it.

"Wooooohooooo!"

"I TOLD YOU YOU WOULDN'T MAKE IT!"

"I MADE IT OUT ALIVE DIDN'T I!"

The two laughed and shouted for joy, their cries echoing through the canyon. Ignus pulled his right arm loose and raised it in triumph, knocking a load of boulders loose and sending them tumbling down into the darkness. The echoes of the rocks bounced around the canyon walls creating what seemed to be an endless commotion. The two friends exchanged one more happy look before Ignus began to climb up.

As Ignus began to move, a deep rumbling echoed through the canyon and up into the desert air. It quieted for a moment, then a immense roar echoed from the bottom of the pit.

"Water?"

"Yeah. Thanks Jer."

Two soldiers stood on the wall that surrounded their military outpost. Jerry had just brought two glasses of water for the two of them as they stood guard.

"Hey Ben?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you ever wonder why we are here?"

"Well that-," a beep interrupted the guard's comment. He looked down at his phone. Garlin's face and number showed up on the screen,"- is a question that will get an answer later." He answered the call and moved the phone to his ear, "Hey Gar. Its about time you called, you were due back here ten minutes ago."

Bzzzzzt ",I hate you! I hate you so much!" Bzzzzzt. Sounds of crashes and yelling interrupted the insult and filled the small phone's speakers.

"Garlin what was that?"

Bzzzzzzt ,"Rick? Thank the lord!," another crash accompanied with gunshots followed the remark. "IT'S AN FlE! IT'S AN E!"

"Gar, what is it what are you talking about?!"

"Rick," the other guard handed a pair of binoculars to his partner after taking a long look for himself, "You might want to see this."

Rick took the binoculars and began scanning the desolate desert. Nothing but dirt and sand graced his eyes, until...

The phone dropped to the floor still spewing sounds of battle and Garlin screaming, "GRIMM! CATEGORY E!"

"I hate you! I hate you so much!"

"I know!"

"You are a stupid bastard!"

"I know!"

"If we live I am gonna kill you!"

"I know!"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Between huffs of breath Garlin yelled at Ignus about how much he hated him as they ran at mach speed across the desert. Behind them a set of three roars echoed after them. Its massive muscles rippled as its wings took it up above the two soldiers. One head released a gurgled roar that emitted from a head that mildly resembled a ram. Another released an ear splitting screech that echoed from a massive reptilian head. The third mouth sent forth a roar that resembled thunder echoing over the desert landscape, it's head was a twisted representation of a lion.

A Chimera. The absolutely massive creature could stand with all three heads over a the compounds walls. And it was now chasing our two future huntsman across the baren desert outside their compound.

Ignus continued to run steadily across the hot sand keeping his breaths even and his stride true as he fired a few shots up at the target that circled overhead. "Well it could be worse."

"DON'T SAY THAT! AND HOW COULD IT GET ANY WORSE!"

"Well they could start using the anti-cat. F weapons."

"You son of a b-"

His insult was cut off by the echoing boom of the outposts massive canons. Explosions began to pepper the landscape as they open fired on Grimm.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The team of two forgot how tired they were and began to run faster. Through all the explosions, roars, gunshots, and fire that shot from the Grimm's reptilian mouth, the insults and were continuely yelled over the commotion with the two moving over the rough landscape.

The Chimera swooped through the sky, dodging all manner of ammunitions and swooped once more towards the running pair of humans. It absorbed bullet after bullet, still in its deadly arc, with outstretched claws and roaring heads. The dragon head of the beast began to stretch forward to snatch at one of the boys, growing ever closer and closer. Its mouth widened and reached in for the kill...

Then was shut. The mouth of the beast shut and the head attached to it slammed against the ground and began to roll over itself in the dust. The long neck it had been attached to now failed and wipped around as the other heads screamed out in agony as its wings fell limp at its sides.

A figure dressed in black now stood between the beast and the two soldiers. Two black ribbons wipped around in the whirlwind created by the stopping Grimm. The Chimera stood tall and looked at the new figure. The canon fire and gunshots stopped in anticipation to see what was to happen. The two remaining set of eyes glowed crimson with hatred. Heads leaned forward to release an angered roar the black warrior. A flash of white cut through the air and sunk a thin blade deep into the ram's skull. Another flash and the skull was encased in ice. With a third flash the head shattered as the blade was pulled out and the figure leaped from the monster's body.

The Grimm's back legs crumpled beneath it and the final head struggled to support itself on its front paws. One last roar struggled to pass through the beast's gritted teeth before it collapsed down onto its front legs. The figure in black approached the now fallen legend and sunk her blades deep into the Grimm's throat, ending the mental and physical strain that had tortured the Grimm in its final moments.

Ignus stood and looked in awe at the huntresses that had felled the massive creature. One of them, almost shining white in the midday sun, began approaching the two dumbstruck duo. "Are you Ignus?" she said pointing at him.

"... what do you want with Ignus?"

"DuUude you are goin' to huntsman college! In Vale!"

"Yeah. I guess."

"What do you mean you guess? You had Weiss Schnee and Blake from team RWBY bring a personal invitation to YOU to attend Beacon Huntsman academy!"

"Why are you so cool about this?" Ignus said as he looked from his sitting position on his bunk.

"Why aren't you?" Garlin looked at his friend. Genuinely suprised at his lack of a reaction to all of this. "Man when they first asked for you, you talked about yourself in third person!" Garlin moved and sat down next to him. "Seriously man, what's wrong?"

The partners sat in their grey dreery bunk room discussing the absolute chaos that was today's events. Ignus had watched Garlin scurry around their cement room shoving what little possessions Ignus had into a duffel bag as he sat thinking on his bed.

"The problem is my dad obviously."

"... Right. Major General Dad. So what?"

"Soooo I am supposed to be Private Patriot and if I leave to go to the "The Best Huntsman Academy Outside of Mistral" he will probably disown me or bury me alive with an honorable discharge."

"Then leave before he has the chance to."

"What?"

"You heard me. This is a choice that you have. You know very well that if you stay here then you will become a soldier like everyone else with no purpose besides waiting for a war that will never happen. But if you go, then you get to be out there making a difference and helping people. Plus, Beacon is probably a lot nicer then this shit hole we live in."

Ignus sighed. "I just need some time to think."

"NO," Garlin stood up and placed both hands on Ignus's shoulders, "How come whenever it comes to doing something stupid, you are the first to do it no questions asked. But when something good is handed to you on a silver plate, you question it and try to think. Stop thinking about this. Your only family is me and your father and your father is a douche who hasn't laid eyes on you in six years not counting the time he assigned you to this god forsaken place. Plus I already packed most of your bag for you."

Ignus looked at the half filled bag. Then at the concrete walls around him. His mind tried to wander to home, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find a place he could call a home. Or a real family.

"You know what. You're right. F it. But what about you?"

"Psssh, I am coming with you."

"What?"

"Well the recruiters came this far to get you so they must really want you. So make a condition that if you go then I go."

Ignus could only laugh. "Sounds like you have been planning this for a while."

"I have a plan for everything!" Garlin pulled his own already packed duffle bag out from beneath his own bunk. "Now, let's get you packed up."

_Hello readers! Bacon here. This is just a message that I probably should have put in the first chapter but is here now. Along with this fic I am also writing a side fic to go along with this called __**Beyond The Rift**__. It will work similar to the World of Remnant videos for RWBY. It will give character bios for newly introduced characters, details on the lore and history that I will be using, and will work as a bestiary for new Grimm species. So please check that out, it will help greatly with comprehension and details about the story._

_I would also like to say that I love it when I get reviews, especially those that can help me improve the story in anyway or even just a pat on the back and a cookie is always nice._

_So in closing, sit back, make some Mexican food, warm up some milk and enjoy the read._


End file.
